Why would someone – especially someone who holds the office of U.S. Representative – just days after a horrific school shooting in Michigan, post a tweet featuring a photo of himself and his family holding an arsenal of guns in front of a Christmas tree?
That is exactly what Thomas Massie did. Massie is a 50-year-old Republican who has been a United States Representative for Kentucky's 4th congressional district since 2012.
On Saturday, December 5, 2021, Massie tweeted a picture of himself and his family of six others holding “firearms resembling machine guns and semi-automatic weaponry, some of which had been made to look almost identical to fully automatic weapons.”
"Merry Christmas!" Massie said on Twitter. "Ps. Santa, please bring ammo."
Under US law, weapons such as machine guns are restricted to the military, law enforcement and civilians who have obtained special licenses for weapons made before May 1986.
The post received tens of thousands of "likes" as well as nearly 9,000 retweets and about 13,000 comments as of Saturday afternoon, including criticism of his timing.
Fellow Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat, responded to the tweet …
"I promise not everyone in Kentucky is an insensitive a------."
"I'm old enough to remember Republicans screaming that it was insensitive to try to protect people from gun violence after a tragedy," he added. "Now they openly rub the murder of children in our faces like they scored a touchdown. Disgraceful."
(Jeremy Chisenhall.
“‘Santa, please bring ammo.’ KY rep. condemned for posing with
guns in Christmas photo.” Kentucky.com.
December 05, 2021.)
Fred Guttenberg, an activist against gun violence, replied with a picture of his daughter, who was killed in the Parkland school shooting in Florida in 2018. "The Michigan school shooter and his family used to take photos like yours as well."
After receiving backlash,
Massie retweeted a tweet from conservative political commentator
Candace Owens, defending Massie’s tweet. “Can somebody explain to
me how they worked out that the Michigan school shooting is
(Massie’s) fault because he shared a picture of him and his family
holding legal fire arms?” Owens asked in the tweet.
It
should be noted that most critics of the tweet – including Yarmuth
and Guttenberg – never claimed the shooting was Massie's fault.
(Bryce Shreve. “Disgraceful.' Rep. Massie draws bipartisan backlash for gun-filled Christmas photo.” Kentucky Spectrumnews1.com. December 05, 2021.)
Massie has been a strong supporter of gun rights.
Last January, Massie spoke to a cheering crowd at the state Capitol building in Frankfort, at one point waving his gun in front of the rallygoers. The Northern Kentucky congressman, who opened his speech by repeating the saying that God created man and Sam Colt – whose company led to the mass production of revolvers – made them equal, said it’s everyone’s God-given right to bear arms.
“Don’t tell me nobody wants to take your guns," he said. "There are people right here in Frankfort who want to take your guns.”
Ayana Archie of the Louisville Courier Journal reported …
“Massie has also condemned red flag laws, saying people would end up in jail over them. And he condemned universal background checks, saying they’re just the government’s way of tracking what kind of guns people have.
“He's made other controversial tweets in the past. In August, he posted – and then apparently deleted – a tweet that compared so-called vaccine passports to the identification numbers Nazis tattooed on people imprisoned during the Holocaust.
(Ayana Archie. “Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie tweets pro-gun photo days after Michigan school shooting. Louisville Courier Journal. December 04, 2021.)
Roots Of the Current Insanity
Since the election of Donald J. Trump in 2016, gun advocates have beem emboldened to commit such heightened acts of insensitivity.
Trump was outspoken about his support for gun rights. He boasted that his two adult sons were avid hunters. One of his first policy papers was on the Second Amendment, writing that the “government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own.” And he talked about his New York-issued license to carry a concealed weapon and suggested he was prepared to use it.
“Somebody attacks me, oh, they’re gonna be shocked,” Trump said during a speech in Tennessee in 2015, comparing any such attack to “Death Wish,” the 1970s vigilante movie, and repeatedly using his right hand to pretend to pull a pistol from his suit. “Can you imagine? Somebody says: ‘Oh, there’s Trump. He’s easy pickings.’”
(Manny Fernandez and Mitch Smith. “Gun Owners ‘Can Breathe Again’: Trump’s Win Emboldens Advocates.” The New York Times. November 22, 2016.)
Everytown For Gun Safety reports …
“Armed protests; a resurgent white supremacist movement; anti-government militias organizing; conspiracy theories brought to the mainstream; purposeful sowing of distrust in political institutions – the United States currently faces a confluence of dangerous challenges caused by groups and individuals on the extreme right. Gun rights fanaticism is the common denominator among all these challenges.
“Having tracked the gun lobby, in particular the NRA, for years, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund (Everytown), in this report, examines the role of the gun lobby in exposing broader audiences to the potentially radicalizing messaging of the far right, fanning the flames of anger and fear in those already radicalized, and advocating for lax gun laws that enable violent extremists to arm themselves. The report further discusses what the dangerous confluence of reckless rhetoric, gun lobby influence, and armed extremism means for our democracy, in particular the prospect for extreme-right violence around the upcoming election. Unfortunately, there are several examples of extreme-right violence in the recent past in which these conditions resulted in tragedy.”
(“Armed and Dangerous: How the Gun Lobby Enshrines Guns as Tools of the Extreme Right.” Everytown Research & Policy. 2021.)
In October 2018, Trump and his allies issued ominous warnings about the supposed threat posed by a “caravan” of migrants heading to the United States from Mexico. NRATV, then the propaganda arm of the National Rifle Association, parroted those lines: An NRATV host claimed that left-wing groups, Jewish billionaire George Soros, and the Venezuelan government were conspiring to send large numbers of migrants to the United States in order to influence the upcoming election.
(“NRATV Correspondent: Migrant Caravan Is ‘an Invasion under the Guise of Migration.’” Media Matters for America. October 19, 2018.)
Everytown reports …
“Eight days later, a white supremacist entered the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue and opened fire on the congregation. During his shootout with police, the shooter told an officer, 'They’re committing genocide to my people. I just want to kill Jews.' In his final social media post, the shooter accused a Jewish nonprofit that aids refugees of 'bring[ing] invaders in that kill our people,' directly referencing a well-known racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theory known as the replacement theory. His rampage killed eleven people and wounded six more, making the attack the deadliest on a Jewish community in US history.”.
(“Armed and Dangerous: How the Gun Lobby Enshrines Guns as Tools of the Extreme Right.” Everytown Research & Policy. 2021.)
The shooter’s affinity for conspiracy theories did not stop there. Associates recalled that dating back to at least the 1990s, he had harbored conspiratorial views about the government. For instance, he kept a shotgun at the door in case “the [United Nations] blue hats” came to get him or his guns. The gun lobby has for years promoted the conspiracy theory that the UN is planning to confiscate guns in the US.
(Rich Lord. “How Robert Bowers Went from Conservative to White Nationalist.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. November 10, 2018.)
The jacket for one of NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre’s two books about the subject reads, in part, “If you think there’s no way an armed U.N. platoon of blue helmets can knock on your door to take your guns, this book just became your next must-read.” Indeed, conspiracy theories about pending gun confiscation have been central to gun lobby and extreme-right messaging for decades. These conspiracy theories contribute to a dangerous climate among the extreme right that increases the prospect for violence.
(Wayne LaPierre. The Global War on Your Guns: Inside the UN Plan to Destroy the Bill of Rights. 2006.)
Concluding Remarks
Representative Thomas Massie has chosen to promote a dangerous holiday message that will likely increase the prospect for violence in a country struggling mightily with a gun violence epidemic. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about his tweet. It is neither appropriate nor purposeful. If anything, it openly attacks the spirit of Christmas and defies the message of “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
The frightening reality is that a United States congressperson would choose to make public his twisted gun mentality. Look at the firearms in the photo. These are not hunting rifles or weapons used to target practice for sport. The message is clear – the family is posing with aggressive weapons used to end human life. And … they want lots of ammo to do so.
Consider this tweet opposing Massie by a man named Samuel Sinyangwe …
“If a Black family posted something like this a SWAT team would raid the house and any family members who survived would be permanently added to a gang database.”
Sarcastic? Perhaps, but you know the truth in the statement. I don't have to support the veracity here. Like the boasts and forceful messages of so many others who want to force the issues involved in the 2nd Amendment, Thomas Massie's words and photo will get a free pass … he may possibly face a small lecture about bad timing for his sick message.
Damn him. This man has a gun fetish with an assault mentality and wants everyone to know it. If Massie is to continue to serve Kentucky, he should at least represent his district with the honor they deserve. It is my hope the good people of the state – both gun owners and others – demand better. The representation of his Kentucky family as a well-armed militia is more than misguided. It is divisive and dangerous.
I Could Ask, But I Think They Use Tweezers
the shoulder isllllllla complicated
organlllllfemorallllllllllllllllartery
lymphlllnodes tendons all those joints
iflllllla bullet goes
thru you
there’s alsolllllllthe
clothingllllllllohlllllyeah
what did you thinkllllllI mean if it’s
just thisllllllllthen that’s different
but
if it’sllllllltwo layers of
thatllllthose are other impurities the
bodylllllllllllllllllllllllllldoes it’s
job just one
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllfunction
to release what can’t stay he walked into the ER
smiledlllllllllllllllllllllll“I need a
doctorllllllthanks
lllllllllman”
blood stops moving to the bigllllllllllllllllltowns
the brain is a big town the heart is a big town the kidneys
are
llllllllllllllllllllllhot spots
like Vegas builtllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllto
handle armies on vacation the blood learnsllllto
bend another
way like the legs of a cranelllllllllllllllllllllthey
make bullets differentlllllllllllnow-a-daysllllllllllllllllllin
thellllllllllllllgood-ole-days
llllllllla
bullet went in and out andllllllllllllllllllllllllthe
holes matched now alllllllllll.22llllllllllllla
.38llllllexpands in the body
absorbs
like a tamponlllllllllllllllfunctionlllllllllllllllllllllllllpull
in all lifellllllllhe was ordering drive
thru foodlllllllllllllMcDonalds
food
notlllllllllllllllreally food maybe
likellllllllllfrench fries maybe
likelllllllllllla Sprite maybe like a
#2
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllthings
that don’t feel like food in the mornings
downlllllllllllllllllllllllllthe street
from my house
lllllllllllfrom his
mama house a clogllllllllllllllllllllat
the 3rd counter this guy has a gun a gun
haslllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllan
operation
has composition is orchestralllllllllllllllllllllllis
an organ of some complication
ephemeral
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllthe
bullets are small a shoulder is innocuous until you become a nurse
the only
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllreason
he died was speed and proximity but if it’s a
couplelllllllllllllllllllllllayers of
cloth well you
have to get that out too
Aziza Barnes is blk & alive. Born in Los Angeles, Barnes currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi. Aziza’s first full length collection, “I be but i ain’t” is forthcoming from YesYes Books. Aziza is a poetry & non-fiction editor at Kinfolks Quarterly, a Callaloo fellow, a graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a current candidate for an MFA in Poetry at University of Mississippi.
“I Could Ask, But I Think They Use Tweezers” grew from Barnes’ long struggle to find the language to talk about the murder of a friend. He was shot and killed at 18, just before he planned to train to be a firefighter. (She asked us not to share his name out of respect for his family’s privacy.)
No comments:
Post a Comment